The iodized salt does not change the taste, color, or form of products. That is the conclusion the specialists of the National Institute of Food Technologies (INTA) came to after performing many scientific studies and laboratory tests of many kinds of cheese and canned vegetables, prepared in the same industrial conditions, but using iodized salt, instead of ordinary salt, used by producers, Info-Prim Neo reports. “The studies lasted about half a year. We have thoroughly tested the products made with iodized salt and we came to the conclusion that they do not differ from those prepared with ordinary salt,” INTA director Natalia Tislinskaia said. “The smell or taste of iodine has not been felt, and the quality of the products has not surpassed the standards,” Natalia Tislinskaia added. To persuade the public about this, INTA organized on December 11, a public tasting of the products prepared with Iodized salt. A special commission, with representatives of the institute, the Government, the Department of Standardization and Metrology, specialists from the producing companies, as journalists have tasted the products prepared with iodized salt and those prepared with ordinary salt, comparing them. The action was organized by INTA and the Ministry of Agriculture, with the financial support of UNICEF in Moldova. “We want to show the public and the producers that the iodized salt does not harm the food quality, as it had been talked before. Moreover, the daily consumption of food, prepared with iodized salt, ensures the health of all the family,” the coordinator of the program “Equal access to quality services” within the UNICEF Moldova, Svetlana Stefanet. The event is included in a series of actions, part of the National Program of eradicating disabilities caused by iodine deficit, endorsed by the Government in 2007. The document provides, from March, 2007, for importing only iodized salt, growth of the utility rate of the iodized salt, raising the rate of using the iodized salt by families to 90% and extending using the iodized salt in all branches of the food industry, starting with January 1, 2009.